What's your favorite monster?

[derv]

Yup. What's your favorite? Or, more specifically, which monster do you like using the most because it easily evokes atmosphere for you.

Me, I like Trolls. The Scandinavian myth behind them is especially interesting to me. They are iconic in fantasy literature. They come in all shapes and sizes. Dull and ravenous.

I tend to prefer the cave troll, often solitary, but it's fun when there's a family unit with personalities.

Oh, the Poul Anderson troll is cool too.

[talysman]

Skeletal undead. Their appearance immediately says "monster" to everyone. And there's a lot of tweaking you can do to make a nearly endless variety.

[waysoftheearth]

Dragons are high on my list (despite the wacky HD/hp thing).

[Punkrabbitt]

Giants and fish people. D2 Shrine if the Kuo-Toa was the first module I bought on it's own, followed by G2 Glacial Rift Of The Frost Giant Jarl and then G1 Steading Of The Hill Giant Chief. I was 10 years old, and those helped shape my outlook on fantasy.

[doublejig2]

Xvarts for pomp and circumstance... as before a hideous, powerful evil spell caster. Otherwise humanoids and feral creatures.

[geoffrey]

The innumerable, mindless purple worms burrowing just beneath the surface.

[captainjapan]

The beholder. Early on, I played a game where the party rapelled down a shaft to the 3rd level, we thought. Well, it turned out not to have been the third level. After we lost our mapper to a dart trap, the DM rolled his first successful wandering monster check. When we moved into a corridor, he described a giant, slow moving orb, like a medusa's head, crossing at the other end. Everyone looked at each other in befuddlement, but a second later I had a terrible revelation: It's a beholder! We hadn't escaped it's notice and, even though we made our saves this time, it put such a scare into us that we abandoned exploring completely. We didn't know if it was ahead of us or behind us in any given moment. Ours had glowing eyes and would scream if it caught sight of us.

[talysman]

Jan 19, 2020 15:28:49 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

The innumerable, mindless purple worms burrowing just beneath the surface.

This is important for my world's backstory, and I do like the idea a lot, but I can't say I use purple worms (or their colossal cousins the vadwyrms) all that much.

[mgtremaine]

I've had a ton of fun with Rakshasa over the years. Super flexible monster, great at getting away and coming back to cause more trouble.

-Mike

[hamurai]

The Beholder is probably my favourite because it's terrifying and, depending on the variety, deadly. Players won't know exactly what powers it has until they find out and till then they tend to be really careful, with good reason.

Most used monster... Depending on the campaign it's probably the skeleton (they have their place in every setting).

[sonicracer100]

Slimes, Gelatinous Cubes, and Yellow Mold are my favorites. I love using monsters that second as environmental hazards. I haven't had the pleasure to use bigger baddies yet though, so maybe that'll change....

I'd love to use a Beholder

[Zakharan]

My softest spot is reserved for trolls, but in terms of menace and excitement, it's got to be the Mind Flayer. My parties have only encountered them twice, and both times it won initiative and made huge problems with its mind blast. Made the players (and the one psion) extremely nervous about a subsequent scrap with one.

EDIT: no sooner than I wrote this that the party ran into two Mind Flayers at once tonight. It was a good thing they brought hirelings.

[sixdemonbag]

Nothing says "D&D" to me quite like the Beholder. The titular dragons are a very close second.

Also, the movie my avatar is taken from, has a Beholder in it, so I'm biased. 

[flightcommander]

For me the Lich is the paramount D&D foe. However — and I'm perhaps going out on a limb here — I'd propose evil Magic-Users and Clerics as my favorite monsters. They've got magic, they've got henchmen (if you're doing it right!), they've got good treasure, and they've got plans. They can be encountered at every level, as individuals or in groups (yikes). They're perfect for folks like me who prefer to run "humans only" campaigns, and yet they work in any environment. And if you let them live long enough they'll become a Lich

[retrorob]

You mentioned Mind Flayer, Beholder, Gelatinous Cube, Lich, Rakshasa - actually they aren't OD&D monsters, unless you acknowledge materials from the Supplements and magazines

as for the vanilla 3LBB:

1. Gnolls - they are so vaguely described that they might be everything you want (well, lord Sunsany...). In my games Gnolls were literally wolfsheads aligned with National Socialism (Chaos).

2. Wyverns - to be honest, I like them more than Dragons. Chaotic Heroes might use them as taxi

3. Wights (and Wraiths, cause they're "simply high-class Wights") - I wish you could see my player's faces every time I mentioned them

4. Ogres - perfect match for a low-level party. recently I've added more Chainmail-based Ogres/Trolls with 6 HD (they lack regenerative powers of Paul Anderson's True Trolls that are OK as well, but I found regeneration mechanics too cumbersome)

5. Balrog - a true formidable foe, possible archenemy for Law-aligned party.

[Deleted]

As NPCs, Orcs and werewolves.

As player-torturing nuissance that never quite go away, Trolls and Wraiths.

[derv]

The first Lych to be mentioned! I thought someone would have tagged them already.

[doublejig2]

Agreed about liches, though when I first began AD&D in 1980, I actually found the lich to be too terrifying to consider. I used to skip the page it was on in the MM.

[makofan]

It used to be kobolds, but now its Gelatinous cubes. My cubes are terrifying, as I just have them do a move=over and engulf any characters meleeing with them on the next turn. I had a den of goblins that used the cube in their lair to lure people into its maze and then set it loose

[flightcommander]

I recognize the Lich as an OD&D monster by virtue of its inclusion in the 1975 tournament module (actually a demi-lich I think, but still). I also love Wights.

[waysoftheearth]

After all due deliberation my top monster has to be: Men.

[Vile Traveller]

So this is limited to M&T? In that case, hobgoblins - smart, disciplined, fearless, not overly sentimental. In my game world, the hobgoblins will win.

Now that I think on it, when did troglodytes enter the game? Now those ladies and gentlemen are my all-time favourites. They're the degenerate descendants of the snake people, you know. The snake people who built a lot of the Underworld before disappearing. You know, the bit below the orc mazes, below the purple worm tunnels, but not as far down as the cthonic mansions of the old ones.

[Red Baron]

I like ghouls.

It is a memorable and chilling experience the first time a slain character or hireling is lost in combat with ghouls, only to return as a ghoul in the next session.

Ghoul paralysis is very deadly, while avoiding the difficulties of level drain adjudication. It is very scary to face ghouls without elfs or clerics.

I do not like zombies. They do not have the same bizzare and spooky d&d vibe as ghouls.

[countingwizard]

My favorite monster is the mind flayer, because I know when we encounter one we are in for a real treat!

[countingwizard]

Jan 18, 2020 20:11:37 GMT -6 talysman said:

Skeletal undead. Their appearance immediately says "monster" to everyone. And there's a lot of tweaking you can do to make a nearly endless variety.

That and zombies. They can both be scattered around the dungeon as literal room scenery and still pose a threat. I also like using them on high level parties by creating hordes of them and abstracting some of the mechanics so that players are under threat of being pulled down under the weight of bodies and torn apart.

[tetramorph]

Dragons.

Especially when they are intelligent and magical.

Long, windy, snake-like and thin. Intelligent, vain, jealous, greedy, super-naturally aware of every gold coin they sit on. Ancient, pedigreed, imperial. Gullible, easily flattered and equally easily offended.

And then they breath fire (or some other such danger).

Fight on!

[retrorob]

Vile Traveller  

Troglodytes appeared for the first time in "The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth" (correct me if I'm wrong).

[derv]

Jan 23, 2020 6:08:47 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

So this is limited to M&T?

Nah. It's only limited by what our gorish GM minds can think of. Anything goes.

[waysoftheearth]

This topic crystalises one of the amazing features of D&D for me: it's a giant mash-up of fantasy themes that somehow "works" as a stand-alone thing. The result is there's something in there for everyone, as well as troves of variation to go around. Awesomeness. Great topic derv

[clownboss]

Goblins. I make them drug dealers.